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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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SPEECH 



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HON. B. F. LOAN, OF MISSOURI, 



OK 



THE RELATION OF THE REBEL STATES TO THE GOVERNMENT, AND THE DUTY OF THE 
GOVERNMENT IN RE-ESTABLISHING THE UNION; 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 3, 18G6. 



WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1866. 



RECONSTRUCTION. 



> 



The House, as in Committee of the Whole on the 
state of the Union, having under consideration the 
President's annual message — 

Mr. LOAN said: 

Mr. Speaker : The absorbing question that 
demands the attention of national authority 
at this time, relates to national unity. Dis- 
eord and civil war have divided our unhappy 
country, and threatened its destruction. Guided 
by an insane and malignant purpose, eleven 
States, in violation of all law, formally re- 
nounced fcheir allegiance to this Government 
and organized for themselves separate de facto 
governments, and attempted to achieve their 
independence by war. After four years of civil 
war 6uch as no other nation could endure and 
live, the rebel armies surrendered and the con- 
test upon the battle-field for the dismember- 
ment of the Republic has ceased for the pres- 
ent. The rebels yielded, not because they were 
willing to surrender the cause for which they 
fought, not because they repented of their trea- 
son, not because they desired to return to their 
allegiance, but because they were exhausted 
and overwhelmed by an irresistible force. "De- 
feated but not conquered, subdued but not sub- 
jugated," their determination to destroy this 
Government and to erect another on its ruins, 
the chief corner-stone of which is to be Afri- 
can slavery, remains as fixed and steadfast as it 
was when they embarked in rebellion in 1860-1. 
The decision of war to which they first appealed 
having been given against them, they seek to 
transfer the contest to the Halls of the grand 
council of the nation, into which their chosen 
agents are now demanding admission , and where 
it is hoped, if they can once enter, they can by 
diplomacy and fraud achieve that success which 
they failed to secure by force. In relation to 
this matter our action should be guided by the 
utmost prudence; we cannot afford to make 
any blunders. In the physical conflict the dis- 
asters resulting from incapacity, cowardice, or 



disloyalty, could be repaired. They only in- 
curred the unnecessary waste of treasure and 
the loss of the lives of a greater, or less num- 
ber of our patriotic fellow-citizens, who were 
freely offering themselves as sacrifices upon 
the altar of their country's safety. But here a 
mistake would probably prove fatal. We are the 
chosen few to whom has been confided, under 
God, the destiny of this great Republic, not 
for a day, nor for a year, but for all time ; and 
what we do is irrevocable and earns for us an 
imperishable fame, or damns us to eternal 
infamy. 

If we have the intelligence and manhood to 
act. in the interests of universal liberty and the 
inalienable rights of man, untold generations 
will bless ouf memories for having secured them 
the liberty they enjoy. But if we suffer our- 
selves to yield to the seduction of' apparent 
peace, and in our haste to restore the rebels to 
amicable relations with this Government, we 
forget the rights of humanity, and ignore jus- 
tice in reestablishing the Union of these States, 
we will only be remembered to be scorned and 
despised as the betrayers of a sacred trust. 

In the contest through which we have just 
passed more than three hundred thousand of the 
bravest and the best of our fellow-citizens have 
willingly laid down their lives, that the Republic 
might live. We owe it to their memories, to 
their widowed wives and orphan children, that 
the fruits of the victories that cost them and us 
so much should not be carelessly or recklessly 
thrown away. While our patriot dead have 
given so much to their country in the discharge 
of their duties, ought we to hesitate in the dis- 
charge of ours, to make any sacrifice that the 
interest of the country demands? The honors 
of place, the blandishments of power, the suc- 
cess of this party or of that, sink into utter 
insignificance in the presence of such impor- 
tant duties as those are which we are now 
required to perform. 



The times demand the highest patriotism, the 
most utter abnegation of all personal considera- 
tions, the greatest intelligence, and the utmost 
care. Our gallant armies have well and faith- 
fully performed the part required of them, in 
the contest waged against the nation's life ; it 
remains for us to perform our part with equal 
ability, and the same fidelity. To do this suc- 
cessfully requires of us a thorough knowledge 
of "the situation;" and to this end T propose 
to add, to what has already been so well said, 
on the condition of affairs, a few suggestions 
upon some points which, in my opinion, have 
not been sufficiently elaborated. 

It is very desirable that we should ascertain, 
if possible, the precise relation, in fact, as well 
as in law, which the revolted States bear to the 
Government. At a time prior to the rebellion, 
they were in law, and in fact, States in this 
Union, with all the rights and privileges, and 
under all the obligations that pertain to any 
and all the States in the Union. Afterwards, 
they formally, as States, renounced their alle- 
giance to this Government, surrendered all 
their rights and privileges under it, and declared 
themselves absolved from all obligations to it. 
They then proceeded to organize independent 
governments, State and confederate, and en- 
tered into compacts with each other for mutual 
defense and support, and announced their de- 
termination to maintain their independence by 
acts of war. Had our Government acquiesced 
in what they did, and "accepted the situation"' 
and "letthemalone," as they desired we should 
do, the rebellion they inaugurated would have 
becom e a successful revolution. The separation 
of the rebel States from the nation would have 
been final and complete, and the confederate 
government would have been as thoroughly 
established as was ours when Great Britain ac- 
cepte#the result of the seven years' war of the 
Revolution. Dismemberment, or war, was the 
alternative that the action of the rebels otfered 
to the Republic; Hence it appears that the only 
rights that the Government could assert over 
that part of the national domain, which was in- 
cluded within the rebel States and over the in- 
habitants there, were just those that it could 
acquire by force of arms. The rebels had effected 
a dissolution of the Union in fact, but not in law. 

In ^iis connection it becomes material to 
inquire whether a dissolution of the union of 
the States would, as some contend, neces- 
sarily destroy the Government. On this point 
I am inclined y to think that many are led into 
serious error in supposing the phrase "the 
Union" and "the Governmant" to besynony- 
mous.to express the national authority. Such is 
not the case. They are very different and dis- 
tinct things. The Union is subordinate to the 
Government, and the Government may exist 
independent of the Union. The union of 
States in 1800 was not the same union of Stales 
that existed in 1820, nor was that the union of 



States that existed in 1840. During each period 
new States were added, but the Government 
remained the same, onlj' enlarged and increased 
by its growth as the boy grows into manhood, 
and yet retaining the same individuality. The 
Union may be enlarged or diminished. States 
may be admitted into it or taken out of it, as 
by the conquest of a foreign Power, by treason 
or otherwise, without necessarily destroying the 
Government or our existence as a nation. Con- 
sequently when eleven States entered the chaos 
of rebellion, withdrew their representatives from 
the Halls of Congress, and inaugurated civil 
war, the Union of these States was, de facto, as 
much dissolved as it would have been if the 
rebels had proved victorious in the war and we 
had acknowledged their independence. Since 
the revolt of these States they have held no 
political relations to the Federal Government 
other than those of rebellious subjects. The 
Government exists without them. The Exec- 
utive of the nation administers the law in the 
appointed forms. The supreme judicial tri- 
bunal of the nation holds its regular sessions 
as prescribed by law, and the Legislature of 
the nation holds its regular sessions and makes 
laws for the Republic entirely unaided by any 
representatives from the revolted States. At 
the time appointed by law the loyal people 
elected a President and Vice President for the 
nation. It having been previously declared 
by law that participation on the part of the 
States in rebellion in the formation of the 
Electoral College was not necessary for a valid 
election of those officers, and our President 
to-day holds his office in consequence of<in 
election by a college of electors formed in pur- 
suance of that law. The dissolution of the 
Union effected by the rebels in 1861 continues 
to this day. The political relations of those 
States to the Government have not been re- 
stored, and their right to representation in 
these Halls is not yet recognized. But this 
dissolution of the Union, however disastrous 
it may prove to the traitors and rebels who 
effected it, did not in the least impair the right 
of the nation to exercise its authority over all 
its territory and over all its subjects. The 
thief who steals a horse and runs off with him 
changes de facto the possession of the horse 
from the owner to the thief, but such change 
does not impair the owner's right to pursue the 
thief and recover possession of his property, 
nor will it avail the thief when tried for the lar- 
ceny to deny that he stole the horse, because 
the theft was in violation of law and is therefore 
a nullity. 

Notwithstanding the rebels had effected a dis- 
solution of the Union of the States, the vitality 
and the energy of the Government remained. 
and it was the national authority that opposed 
war to rebellion, not, as has been frequently said, 
lor the maintenance of the Union, not to com- 
pel the revolting States to accept and enjoy the 



rights and privileges of States In the Union, but 
for the maintenance of national supremacy and 
to preserve the integrity of the Republic. Na- 
tional safety imperatively requires us to pre- 
serve our national boundaries intact. We could 
not safely permit a foreign flag to float over the 
peninsula of Florida nor over the mouth of the 
Mississippi river — that great outlet to the mar- 
kets of the world for the inhabitants of those 
great States that lie in and around the basin of 
that river. And therefore the nation purchased 
those provinces with the common treasure for 
the national benefit, and not for the especial 
convenience and advantages of the inhabitants 
thereof. So, when the rebels undertook to 
divide our territory, change our boundaries, 
and establish a foreign government on our boar- 
ders, it was to prevent them from succeeding 
that induced us to make war upon them, and 
not a desire to whip them into the Union for 
their good. After four years of war success 
crowned our efforts, and the flag of the Repub- 
lic floats in triumph over every foot of terri- 
tory that ever belonged to the national domain. 
Organized rebel armies have all been dispersed, 
and organized rebel governments have disap- 

E eared, it is to be hoped, forever. It would 
ardly seem possible that any question could 
arise as to the authority that should control the 
future political destiny of these rebel districts ; 
but strange as it may appear, it is considered 
by some whose opinions are entitled to great 
weight, to be a debatable question whether the 
subdued rebels or the lawfully constituted legis- 
lative authority of the Republic that still holds 
those districts in the iron grasp of military 
power, shall determine their relations to and 
their rights under the Government. 

There are those who insist that the relations of 
the revolted States to the Eederal Government 
are of such a mysterious and wonderful power 
that they cannot be destroyed ; that the Federal 
Government is powerless to change them ; that 
the war they made upon the Republic had no 
effect upon them ; that the ordinances of seces- 
sion passed by them and the establishment of 
a de facto rebel government did not in the 
least impair the rights and privileges of these 
States as members of the Union. In effect, 
they maintain the indestructibility of a Stale 
which has once been admitted into the Union 
of States. Once a State always a State is a 
favorite phrase with such persons. They do 
not hesitate to tell us that a State in the Union 
may have a beginning, but that it can never 
have an end ; that its vitality may be impaired, 
but it cannot be extinguished ; that its func- 
tions may be suspended, but not destroyed ; 
that its component parts may all be annihila- 
ted, yet it wi.ll still exist; that all the inhabit- 
ants may be hung for treason without working 
the destruction of the State; all of which I 
consider to be absurdities so gross and glaring 
that to attempt a refutation of them would be 



to oppose argument against unresisting im- 
becility. 

These same persons also tell us that a State 
cannot commit or incur any forfeiture ; that it 
is only a corporation, and as such "has nobody 
to be hung or soul to be damned ' ' for the crimes 
it commits ; that its powers, rights, and priv- 
ileges are self-existent and indestructible ; that 
they may be held in abeyance, but they are ever 
ready to be called into action by the loyal peo- 
ple of the State without regard to the smallness 
of their number, and that they can exercise all 
the powers and perform all the functions be- 
longing to such States; that, unaided by any 
other authority or power, they have the right 
and the ability, at their option, to resume their 
relations with the Federal Government, even 
against its consent. All of which all loyal men 
know to be as false and heretical as were the 
doctrines of State-rights and the other like fal- 
lacies that culminated in rebellion. We know 
that the States, as such, owe allegiance to the 
Federal Government as the paramount author- 
ity ; that as States they are represented in the 
Senate as the people are in this House of the 
Congress of the United States. If the States 
that joined in the rebellion had remained faith- 
ful as States in the Union, we know there could 
have been no organization of the people in the 
interests of treason ; and we also know that they 
formally, as States, renounced their allegiance 
to the Federal Government, re-called their Sen- 
ators from the Congress of the United States, 
and then entered the portals of organized rebel- 
lion and disappeared forever. 

On their ruins the traitor inhabitants there 
erected eleven rebel States and they estab- 
lished a central government, known as the con- 
federate States of America, all of which they 
claimed to be independent of and entirely dis- ■ 
connected with this Government. They de- 
clared that they had severed every tie that 
bound them to it, and for more than fourycars 
waged a war against it which, for gigantic pro- 
portions, savage barbarity, and wanton cruelty, 
has no parallel in modern times. In the pro- 
gress of this war, to enable us to oppose it, suc- 
cessfully, and to maintain our just authority 
over our national domain, it became necessary 
to proclaim the freedom of all the slaves in the 
rebel States and to call large numbers of them 
into our armies. Finally, we succeeded in dis- 
persing the rebel armies, and the confederate 
government was dissolved, and the armies of the 
Republic took possession of and still hold all 
the rebellious territory. The mil it ary authorities 

deposed the rebel governments found there and 
established military, or. as they are more pops* 
larly known, provisional governments, in their 
places. On the consummation of these happy 
results the popular mind greatly rejoiced in 

the fond belief that the war of the great rebel- 
lion was closed and the nation saved ; and the 
people hoped for a speedy return to peace, with 



6 



al I its attendant joys and blessings. Never was 
there a greater mistake nor a more delusive 
hope. Like the spider, whose web is suddenly 
swept away, the rebel chieftains, shrewd, wily, 
and irrepressible, on the dispersion of their 
armies realized the utter and irretrievable fail- 
ure of their attempt to divide or destroy this 
Republic by force, and at once comprehended 
the necessity for changing their plans. Fraud 
is the inevitable alternative of those who find 
themselves too weak to succeed by force, and 
the rebel leaders have transferred the contest 
which they waged for the division of the Re- 
public from the battle-field to the political 
arena. There, in the guise of friends, in the 
name of loyalty, in the avowed cause of peace, 
harmony, and union, they have assumed to 
organize in the late rebellious districts civil 
State governments, and demand for them the 
recognition of political relations with the Fed- 
eral Government as States in the Union, 
their real object and purpose being to secure 
a position which will enable them to form po- 
litical combinations by which they can, as for- 
merly, control the policy of the Government, 
that they may direct it to national destruction ; 
for they have found it to possess a power that 
they cannot resist, and one that will control 
them unless they can destroy it. 

Recent events give to these demands and pur- 
poses a significance and importance which show 
them to be more dangerous to the safety of the 
Republic than were the rebel armies in the days 
of their most brilliant victories. In this hidden 
danger, which cannot be seen and appreciated 
as could the rebel hosts in battle array, lies the 
greatest peril of the Republic. The utmost 
caution, the highest statesmanship, and the 
most devoted patriotism are required to guide 
safely the ship of state through these impend- 
ing dangers. A mistake here would probably 
prove fatal. There is no opportunity for exper- 
iment; our action in the premises maybe final 
and conclusive. Let us once permit any of 
these reconstructed rebel States to resume their 
political relations with the Federal Govern- 
ment and our power over them as disorganized 
communities will cease. 

They are now without the protection of our 
Constitution, placed there by their crimes delib- 
erately perpetrated, and we can lawfully deal 
with them in any way that in our opinion the best 
interests and the safety of the country may 
demand. Therefore, before we conclude our- 
selves by any action in the premises, we should 
know that the political power in the State seek- 
ing recognition is confided exclusively to loyal 
hands, and that equal privileges and exactjustice 
have been secured by law alike to all loyal eili- 
zens. I think 1 can safely say that Congress could 
not in the faithful discharge of its duties in rela- 
tion to those districts recognize thepolitical rela- 
tions of any States organized therein to the Fed- 
eral Government until the inhabitants thereof 



give some evidence of their hatred of treason 
and of love for their country and its republican 
institutions, nor until rebel sentiments, rebel 
flags, re' >el generals, rebel valor, rebel mem- 
ories, and rebel debts are repudiated ; nor until 
the love of justice, law, and order is so firmly 
ingrafted in the minds of the people as to 
give unquestioned assurance of an enduring 
peace. 

Timid peace men who are afraid to do right 
for fear they might do wrong, and the apologists 
for traitors and rebels, insist that they have done 
enough to entitle them to be restored to their 
rights and privileges in the Union. Such men 
tell us that the rebels have laid down their arms, 
that they are disposed to acquiesce in the re- 
sults of the war, and that they are willing to 
accept the situation. It is true, the rebels laid 
down their arms when they had no power to 
retain them any longer ; that they are disposed 
to acquiesce in the results of the war, because 
they are powerless to do otherwise ; and they 
are willing to accept the situation, because they 
have no option to refuse it. It is said that the 
rebels are disposed to be loyal, and are willing to 
return to their allegiance, but when they come 
they come in the interests of treason. Without 
authority of law, conventions were called to 
organize State governments in the rebellious 
districts ; at the elections held to select delegates 
to these conventions nearly all the loyal peo- 
ple there were excluded from the polls, and 
candidates were voted for and elected because 
of their services in the armies of the rebellion, 
and of their assured fidelity to the cause of the 
traitors. In the constitutions they adopted, the 
political and nearly all the personal rights which 
this nation stands pledged to guaranty to its 
colored soldiers and its colored citizens — the 
only considerable portion of the inhabitants 
there that is or has recently been loyal to the Re- 
public — are ignored ; and standing armies and 
martial law are yet required to enforce national 
authority and to protect the loyal people against 
rebel violence and outrage. In violation of 
common decency and in contempt of law, these 
reconstructed rebels have, in many instances, 
elected as Representatives to this Congress, 
notorious, defiant rebels, whose infamous career 
in treachery and crime renders it impossible for 
them to take the oaths of office prescribed by 
law without committing perjury. 

The allegiance they oiler is not based upon a 
thorough and heartfelt repentance of their 
treason, nor does it arise from a patriotic de- 
votion to their country, nor from a just pride in 
its glory and greatness and power. But it is 
offered in the hope that it will prove the means 
of affording them another opportunity to again 
betray the country, and, if possible, to effect its 
destruction. 

Let no one suppose, that in expressing these 
views, I am opposed to the speedy restoration 
of the rebel States to their places as States in 



the Union. I am as anxious as any one can 
be to see harmonious relations existing be- 
tween every part of this country. 1 will allow 
no feelings of vengeance, or any memories of 
the past, to interpose to prevent the restora- 
tion of amicable relations between the Repub- 
lic and the States lately in revolt. When the 
war of the rebellion is closed and peace is pro- 
claimed ; when the order establishing martial 
law in those States shall have been revoked 
and civil authority established ; when loyal cit- 
izens from overy part of the Republic are pro- 
tected there by the civil law as distinguished 
from the military ; when the leading traitors 
who sought the division of the Republic and 
the destruction of our Government are scorned 
and despised ''for their treason, and loyal men 
■tire" honored and trusted for their fidelity to 
their country ; when these States are organized 
in the interests of loyalty ; when the rights of 
all citizens are alike protected by the law ; 
when there is no exclusion of any from the 
ballot-box who may have borne or who are 
liable to bear arms in defense of our common 
country — in a word, when they come as loyal 
States, organized and controlled by loyal men, 
I shall be ready and willing to receive them 
into the sisterhood of States, without inquiring 
how or by what authority they were organized. 
But they will never come as loyal States so 
long as unrepentant rebels are permitted to 
control their political destiny and rule the 
loyal people there. "Conciliation and kind- 
ness" have ever been thrown away when be- 
stowed upon rebels. " Extending confidence 
to them does not beget confidence in return." 
The ordinary motives that govern human ac- 
tion have no application to the rebels. The 
demon of slavery has corrupted their natures, 
and they are no longer under human influences. 
In the war they prosecuted for the destruction 
of this Government, they disregarded all laws 
human and divine. Assassination and murder, 
arson and robbery, were recognized by them 
as legitimate modes of warfare. Who does not 
remember the massacre at Lawrence, where [ 
they surrounded at daybreak a peaceable town 
remote from the theater of actual hostilities, 
and murdered the citizens by hundreds in cold 
blood, and then sacked and burned the town ? 
And the massacre at Fort Pillow, where the J 
garrison, after having surrendered, were delib- 
erately murdered, some of whom were cruci- 
fied by nailing them to a cross, and were after- 
ward, while alive, thrown into the flames of 
burning buildings? Or those still more cruel and 
heartless atrocities perpetrated at Salisbury, 
Andersonville, and l.ibhy prisons, where our 
soldiers by thousands and tens of thousands 

were compelled to endure the lingering tortures 

of death by starvation and exposure to the ele- 
ments ? These were not the rash and incon- 
siderate acts of irresponsible subordinates in 
the confederate service ; but they were the 



deliberate and well-considered acts of the con- 
federate government, and were authorized and 
permitted by the general officers in its armies ; 
in many instances the same men who have re- 
organized the rebel States, and who now con- 
trol them, and who are asking for them recog- 
nition as loyal States in the Union. They 
assert that they are loyal now, and as a proof of 
their loyalty they propose to swallow as many 
of what they facetiously term "our iron-clad 
oaths" as will satisfy us of the fact. . 

Bitter experiences in my State have taught 
the people there the impolicy of trusting to the 
loyalty of a rebel who offers no better evi- 
dence of com ersion from treason to loyalty 
than can be found in the virtue of an "iron- 
clad ' ' or any other oath. 

The late President, whose excellent judg- 
ment was frequently warped by the kindness of 
his heart, fondly believed that a people whom 
civil war and rivers of blood had divided could, 
by merely being placed in juxtaposition, be 
reunited in bonds of amity and friendship, and 
he determined to try the experiment, and se- 
lected our State as the place for the trial. 

By his amnesty proclamation, appended to 
his annual message to Congress in December, 
1863) he had invited the rebel soldiers to lay 
down their arms and return to their homes, prom- 
ising that they should be protected there on 
taking the oath prescribed in the proclamation. 
As the war had been conducted in Missouri 
with more than ordinary cruelty and outrage 
on the part of the rebels, those of them who 
availed themselves of the President's procla- 
mation of amnesty were not received by the 
Union men on their return home with the ut- 
most kindness ; in fact it was dangerous in some 
localities for them to remain at home, even 
under the President's promise for their pro- 
tection. When informed of this fact the Pres- 
ident was very desirous that they should have 
the protection promised them. He therefore 
perin it ted the Union men, who at the risk of 
all that was near and dear to them had been 
for years, as soldiers under the Union flag, 

exposing themselves to the bullets of their rebel 

neighbors in the character of rebel soldier*, 
bushwhackers, and guerrillas, to be disarmed 
and the flag taken from them and given, with 
their anus, to their rebel neighbors who had 

taken the amnesty oath. When, in the name 

and on behalf of my outraged fellow-soldiers, I 

expostulated with him for allowing this great 
wrong to be committed, he replied that it v. as 
b aece isity, thai there must come a time when 
the rebels and the Union men would have 
to live together in harmony and on terms of 
friendship, when they would have to go to the 

same mill and the same post office, and to meet 
at the same ballot-box. and the sooner that time 
should come the easier it would be tor them to 

resume friendly relations; that as the Union 
men were not disposed to give protection to 



w 



8 



returning rebels, and in many instances were 
inclined to drive them off by force, it was pru- 
dent to disarm the Union men and thereby de- 
prive them of the means of driving the amnestied 
rebels from their homes. But as such rebels 
were coming home at intervals and in compara- 
tively small numbers, they would not probably 
be sufficiently strong to resist the Union men 
who, although disarmed, might be disposed to 
drive the rebels out of the country; therefore 
it was necessary to organize them as soldiers, 
arm them as such and place them under the 

{)rotection of the national flag, where he be- 
ieved the Union men dared not disturb them, 
and as they had laid down the ; r arms and left 
the rebel armies, thereby manifesting ;> <1; ire 
to live peaceably at home, there was no reason 
to believe that they would iuterfere with the 
Union men if they would behave themselves, 
and thus peace would be secured to all par- 
ties. 

The theory was plausible and speaks well for 
the kindness -of the heart that suggested it. 
But in practice it proved to be only another 
illustration of the folly of warming into life a 
poisonous snake, under the delusion that with 
returning strength its disposition to inflict in- 
jury and death would cease. It is hardly neces- 
sary to add that the experiment was a failure. 
The State government approved of the Pres- 
ident's plan of arming the returned rebels and 
their sympathizers, and aided him in doing it. 
The rebels were thus virtually supported by 
the confederate, national, and State govern- 
ments in their opposition to the Union men. 
In this condition of affairs but one alternative 
was left them. What they did in this crisis, 
or how it was done, are matters not necessary 
to be repeated here. Suffice it to say, that the 
State and its government are now m the posses- 
sion of loyal men, and that every rebel and every 
rebel sympathizer within the Siate is perma- 
nently disfranchised by provisions in its con- 
stitution, and that peace, prosperity, and hap- 
piness dwell within her borders. 

In dealing with the revolted States, let us 
profit by this experience, and let us also give 
practical application to the statements so fre- 
quently repeated, "that treason is a crime," 



' 'that none but loyal men must govern the coun- 
try," and "that rebels must take back seats;" 
to do this effectually, we must see that the dis- 
loyal are permanently disfranchised. There 
should be no understanding that their disabili- 
ties might be removed in the future ; it is enough 
for them that they are permitted to live safely 
in a country, in which nearly every household 
to-day mourns the loss of some dear relative, 
whose death was occasioned by their infamous 
crimes. All loyal men in those States must be 
enfranchised without regard to color. Those 
races who bear arms to defend a Republic must 
be allowed to participate in its Government. 

A military necessity required us to emanci- 
pate the negro and accept his services as a sol- 
dier that the Republic might be saved. We 
all remember when victory after victory waS 
crowning the rebel armies on almost every 
battle-field and the armies of the Republic were 
ingloriously retiring before the advancing ban- 
ners of rebellion, that national peril compelled 
us to proclaim the freedom of the slave and 
call him to our aid. Before the ranks of our 
armies had been swelled by two hundred thou- 
sand of these colored soldiers the tide of vic- 
tory was changed, the rebel armies suffered 
defeat after defeat in rapid succession until 
they were finally dispersed and the war ended. 
The services of our soldiers are no longer re- 
quired to defend the country ; it now becomes 
a political necessity to preserve the fruits of 
our victories and to secure a permanent peace 
that we confide the ballot to the hands of all 
our loyal citizens before we take from them as 
soldiers the implements of war. 

The bullet is the freeman's only safety in 
this country when he is deprived of the ballot. 
The ballot and peace or the bullet and war are 
the alternatives between which the Republic 
must choose. 

In conclusion permit me to say that in all our 
action relating to the restoration of the Union 
of these States we should carefully avoid all 
compromises with wrong, oppression, and in- 
justice. We should resolve to stand firmly by 
the right, and when the Union is reorganized 
let it be on the basis of universal freedom and 
universal suffrage for all loyal men. 




.C7f 



